A LONDONER.
SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN OR PLOYDEN.
(Vol. iv., p. 58.)
For the information of your correspondent A TRANSATLANTIC READER, I beg to inform him that Sir Edmund Plowden or Ployden was 2nd son of Francis Plowden of Plowden, Salop, and Shiplake in Berks: a family which can claim its descent from the Saxon kings of England; and by a Saxon charter, granting lands in Salop to the family, that the family had large estates in that remote period. The Saxon derivation of the name (from the Saxon Plean deen, or kill the Dane) alone shows the great antiquity of the family; and there are few, if any, families in England who have retained their ancestral property so direct in the male line as this family. It is also connected with some of the oldest and noblest families in England—the Howards and Staffords are allied to this family by intermarriages. In the reign of Richard I. Sir Roger de Plowden was a crusader; and for his heroic conduct at the siege of Acre, was knighted, and also permitted by the king to bear on his shield the royal arms, the fleur de lis, which is retained to this day. In 9 Edward II., John de Plowden was by parliamentary writ, signed at Clopstow 5th March, called to parliament as one of the lords of the township of Plowden, Salop. Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer in Edw. VI. and Elizabeth's reigns, who was in those times called the oracle of the law, was enrolled among Fuller's Worthies of England, with Camden's Latin verses on him: "Vitæ integritati inter homines suæ professionis nulli secundus."
He was offered by Elizabeth, whose autograph letter was until recently in the possession of the family, the Lord Chancellorship of England, with a peerage, if he would give up his creed as Catholic and turn Protestant; which he declined, preferring to abide by his moral convictions of the truthfulness of what he deemed his faith to worldly honour and aggrandisement. Sir Edmund died at Wanstead, county of Southampton, in 1659; and in possession of large estates in eleven parishes in England, besides his American province of New Albion. To each of these parishes he leaves by his will of 1655 a sum of money to be paid "eight days after his demise, and directs to be buried in the chapel of the Plowdens at Lydbury, in Salop; a stone monument, with an inscription in brass bearing the names of his children, and another with his correct pedigree as drawn out at his house in Wanstead." He appears to have gone to America about the year 1620, and remained there, in Virginia and New England, till about 1630. While there, his sister Ann was married to Sir Arthur Lake, son of Sir Thomas Lake, then Secretary of State to James I.; and through whose influence, we presume, on his return to England he was introduced to the great Lord Strafford, with whom it is believed he proceeded to Ireland; for in the Heralds' Visitation of Salop, 1632, (vide Sims' H. Vist., Brit. Mus.), he is entered in the Plowden pedigree as being then in Ireland. By the Strafford State Papers it appears that in this year he made petition to Charles I. through Lord Strafford, then Lieut. and Capt.-General of Ireland, for the colonising of New Albion:—
"Near the continent of Virginia, sixty leagues N. from James City, without the Bay of Chesapeake, there is a habitable and fruitful island, named Isle Plowden, otherwise Long Isle, with other small isles between 30° and 40° of lat., about sixty leagues from the main, near De la Warre Bay, where Your Majesty, nor any of your Progenitors, were ever possessed of any estate, &c ... to enable the petitioners, their heirs and assigns, for ever to enjoy the said Isle, and forty leagues square of the adjoining continent, as in the nature of a County Palatine or Body Politick, by the name of New Albion, to be held of your Majesty's Crown of Ireland, exempt from all appeal to the Governor of Virginia, and with such other additions, privileges, and dignities therein, to be given to Sir Edmund Plowden, like has been heretofore granted to Sir George Calvert, Knight, late Lord Calvert, in Newfoundland, together with the usual grants and privileges that other Colonies have for governing, &c., and we agree to settle with 500 inhabitants."
The king's warrant was given at Oatlands 24th July, 1632, granting the whole asked for, under the Great Seal of Ireland, signed by John Coke. Between this period and 1634, Sir Edmund was engaged in fulfilling the conditions of the warrant by carrying out the colonisation by indentures, which were executed and enrolled in Dublin, and St. Mary's in Maryland in America. In Dublin the parties were Viscount Musherry, 100 planters; Lord Monson, 100 planters; Sir Thomas Denby, 100 planters; Captain Clayborne (of American notoriety) 50; Captain Balls; and amounting in all to 540 colonisers, beside others in Maryland, Virginia, and New England. The parties who joined in the petition were Sir John Lawrence, Knight and Baronet, who died in America; Sir Bowyer Worstley, Knight, and Charles Barrett, Esq.,—both died there in 1634; George Noble, Gent., Thomas Ribread, Roger Packe, William Inwood, and John Trustler. Having completed the conditions he was granted a charter, bearing date Oatlands, 21st June, 1634; and enrolled in Dublin in 17 pages folio; and confirmed 24th July, 1634, in the eighth year of the reign of Charles I., running thus:
"And according to the tenour and effect of certain of our letters, signed with our proper hand, and sealed with our seal now enrolled in the Rolls of our Chancery of the said Kingdom of Ireland, We have given, granted, and confirmed, and by this our present Charter, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give, grant, and confirm such the before said Sir Edmund Plowden, Knight, his heirs and assigns, for ever, all that entire island near the continent of Terra Firma of North Virginia, called the Island of Plowden, or Long Island, and lying near and between the 39° and 40° of N. lat.; together with part of the continent or Terra Firma aforesaid near adjoining, described to begin from the point of an angle of a certain promontory called Cape Cod, from thence to the westward for the space of 40°, running by the river Delaware, closely following its course by the N. lat. into a certain rivulet there arising from a spring of Lord Baltimore in the lands of Maryland, and the summit aforesaid to the south, where it touches, joins, and determines in all its breadth, from thence takes its course into a square leading to the north by a right line for the space of 40° to the river and port of Reachu Cod, and descends to a savannah, touching and including the top of Sand Bay, where it determines, and from thence towards the south by a square, stretching to a savannah which passes by and washes the shores of the Plowden aforesaid to the point of the promontory of Cape May above mentioned, and determines where it begins." And p. 4. continues: "Therefore We, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give unto the aforesaid Sir Edmund Plowden, and his heirs and assigns, free and full power graciously to confer favours and honours upon the well-deserving citizens and inhabitants within the province aforesaid with whatever titles and dignities he shall choose to decorate them with (in such a manner as they may but now be usurped in England), and to cut and stamp different pieces of gold such as shall be lawful, current, and acceptable to all the inhabitants; and We command all, and enjoin other things to be done in the premises which to him or them shall be seen to be proper, in as free and ample a manner and form as by the Society of Newfoundland and East Indies, Island of Bermuda, Bishop of Durham within the Bishoprick or County Palatine of Durham; or Lord Baltimore within his lands and premises of Maryland and Glastonbury; or James Earl of Carlisle within the island of St. Christopher and Barbadoes; or any other Governor or Founder of a Colony."
In fact, the powers granted were never exceeded by any former charter of the Crown: they were all but regal. Under this charter a lease, enrolled in Dublin, was granted by Lord Plowden in 1634 to Sir Thomas Danby for 10,000 acres, and a release, dated 20th Dec. 1634, sealed and signed at St. Mary's, Maryland, and witnessed by Vall Havord and Richard Benham, by R. Packe for 200 acres; T. Ribread, 100; W. Inwood, 100; and John Trustler, 100; segregating 500 acres in trust for the "Earl of Albion, when they deliver up their claims or trusts in consideration for this grant of land; and confirmed unto Lord Francis Plowden, son and heir of Sir Edmund Plowden, Earl Palatine, and George and Thomas Plowden, two of the sons of the said Sir Edmund, Earl Palatine." Sir Edmund Plowden resided with his wife and family as Governor of New Albion six years; his eldest son, Francis, and Lady Plowden, returned to England to look after his father's estates in his absence: but Francis so abused the confidence reposed in him, as to oblige the Governor to return to England (leaving his sons George and Thomas as his locum tenens). On his arrival he was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison on a base charge emanating from his son, from which he was released by order of the Peers Committee, House of Lords; and likewise involved in a lawsuit to recover certain estates sold by his son, which cost him 15,000l. before he was clear. This unnatural and illegal conduct induced him to disinherit his son Francis; for, in the 15th of Charles I., 1st June, 1646, Sir Edmund obtained license from the Crown to alienate from his son the manors of Wanstead, Southwick, and many others in the county of Southampton, as is enrolled in the Rolls Chapel. By his will, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, Sir Wm. Mason was in trust for Sir Edmund's second son and heir, Thomas Plowden; and also for the New Albion colony. And the will proceeds:
"And I think it fit that my English lands and estates shall be settled and united to my Honor, County Palatine, and Province of New Albion, for the maintenance of the same; and again, that all my lease lands in England be sold with all convenient speed by my executors and overseers herein named, and with the money arising therefrom to buy good freehold, to be settled and entailed as the rest of my lands are settled on my second son Thomas Plowden, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, or to be begotten; also my County Palatine of New Albion, and Peerage as a Peer of Ireland, as aforesaid, unto Thomas Plowden my son during his natural life, and after his decease, to the heirs male of my son Thomas, begotten or to be begotten; and again, I do enter and will that my son Thomas Plowden, and, after his decease his eldest heir in male, and, if he be under age, then his guardian, with all speed after my decease do employ by consent of Sir William Mason of Gray's Inn, Knight, whom I make a trustee of this my plantation of New Albion; and if my son Thomas shall by fail, defence, loose, agree, give, or alien any part of my estates, lands, or rents in England to Francis my son, or his issue, then my son shall forfeit and lose to his eldest son all lands and estates and rents in England herein settled, entailed, or given him, and to be forfeited during his life."
George either died, or was killed, in the massacres by the Indians; as was also Francis, third son of Thomas, along with his wife and family, as alluded to in his father's will, dated 1698.